“We’re here today to launch our plans to bring back Main Street by reducing the crumbling burden on our companies and on our workers,” Trump said in Springfield, Missouri. “The foundation of our job creation agenda is to fundamentally reform our tax code for the first time in more than 30 years.”

Trump’s pitch leaned heavily on the economic benefits tax reform could deliver and aimed to get ahead of Democratic arguments that Trump’s tax reform plans would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans, as independent tax experts have estimated.

He kicked off his remarks by sending prayers to the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, calling the storm “deeply tragic.” Trump said of families of those who died in the storm “all of America is grieving with you and our hearts and joined with you forever”

“We will endure and we will overcome,” he said, praising first responders who “saved countless lives.”

Trump’s speech kicked off in earnest the effort of selling a sweeping overhaul of the tax code. But GOP congressional leaders and the White House have yet to reach an agreement on the details of the tax plan and proposals are expected to go through congressional committees before the plan takes its final shape.